Scientific Analysis of Paul Nation’s Video

. . . Ropen lights (or indava lights) are not caused by fire, airplane lights, or meteors.” Analysis, by the physicist Clifford Paiva, regarding Paul Nation’s video footage of two indava lights observed near the top of a ridge deep inthe interior of the mainland of Papua New Guinea, late in 2006.

The guided missle cruiser USS Joett, years ago, had an encounter with what may have been a giant ropen one night, somewhere between the southwest Pacific and the Indian Ocean.

With a fellow cryptozoologist, some time ago, I interviewed a man who had been a sailor on the U.S.S. Jouett (guided missile cruiser), CG-29. He told us about the night when he was surprised by an excited shipmate who summoned him out of his bunk. Many sailors had just witnessed a giant “pterodactyl” that had flown directly over the ship.

Victoria, Australia Sighting

. . . near the Dandenong Ranges about 25 [kilometers] east of Melbourne. . . . around the late 1990′s . . . I saw . . . something flying that appeared to be at the height of light planes that fly around here . . . This thing was at least as large as . . . say a Cesna. . . . lazily flapping it’s wings . . . It appeared to be lit up by the moonlight and shining as if it had no feathers. Very strange . . .

Giant Living Pterodactyl in New Guinea

Duane Hodgkinson . . . was stationed near Finschhafen, in what was then called New Guinea. After he and his buddy walked into a clearing, they were amazed as a large creature flew up into the air. The men soon realized that it was no bird that started to circle the clearing. It had a tail “at least ten to fifteen feet long,” (book Searching for Ropens, 2007) and a long appendage at the back of its head . . .

Jonathan David Whitcomb, a forensic videographer, interviewed Hodgkinson, in 2004, and found his testimony credible.

It looked like a dead pterodactyl, not fossil bones but with skin, like it had died recently. Could those creatures, non-extinct, still fly? Although I never verified the authenticity of the photograph in the soon-forgotten library book, the idea behind that image would be awakened four decades later, plunging me into the most dramatic adventure of my life: exploring a remote tropical island, searching for giant living pterosaurs.

My first exposure to a remote tropical island with a giant reptile—when my younger sister Cindy and I were infants—came from Mommy reading Peter Pan. (When I was four, my second younger sister was born, not to the name chosen by Cindy and me, “Captain Hook,” but to a name of judicious parental compromise: “Wendy.”) Each character of the story had a role, but the crocodile enigma at first puzzled me; it eventually resolved into both good and bad: useful to Peter Pan as enemy to Hook, but generally dangerous.

Those who enjoyed the first or second edition of Searching for Ropens should be happy reading Searching for Dragons, for much has been added, including new eyewitness accounts. Here is one report from Australia:

Around the late 1990’s, in the state of Victoria, near the Dandenong Ranges, just east of Melbourne, at about 9:00 p.m., he saw what he first thought was a pelican flying about 3000 feet high; but he soon felt that it was too big to be a pelican. . . . This thing was at least as large as a light plane, say a Cessna. It was about 5 klms away and was lazily flapping its wings, flying to the east, at that point a clear sky. It appeared to be lit up by the moonlight and shining as if it had no feathers . . . I could see it quite clearly.

Cryptozoology Book (Searching for Dragons)

Quoting an early version of the last paragraph of the title page of the book:

“Believe what you will about Darwin’s writings on the common descent of all life on earth. But these pages extol the credibility of natives whom Darwin would have thought less evolved than himself, natives some Westerners consider superstitious and unworthy of belief when their testimonies appear to contradict the extinction assumptions that support Darwin’s ideas. Believe what you will about Darwin, but most native and Western eyewitnesses that we have interviewed have been found credible.”

[The two pterosaurs were] circling some tall palm trees (those with small orange coloured fruits) and then helping themselves to the fruits. They were making cries which sounded like squawking in the process. They were large . . .

My sighting occurred probably between the period 1958 – 1960 thereabouts when I was still a little kid. In those days we lived in a small village which was near a densely wooded area. Of course with the general development of Singapore to a metropolitan state it is today, the creatures, if they had propagated, would have [ventured] further south to the wilder regions to avoid civilisation (to ensure their survival).

I cannot recall whether the creatures had any tail. . . . if I would hazard an educated guess given the circumstances, I would think that they probably did not have any tail (or at least long ones) as otherwise such a feature would have caught my attention as well. However, this is only a conjecture and I cannot confirm whether this was the case.

Singapore Flying Creature or Pterosaur

I was wandering some distance from the village; I was staying in Alexandra Road area, and was out on an adventure hunt one hot afternoon in a forested area when I came across a pair of them flying together [as they circled the palm trees] . . . at that time I thought nothing more of them . . . at such a young age, at that time, I never knew they were thought to be extinct. [same sighting as above]

Singapore is a city-state between the southwest Pacific and the Indian Ocean. It has very little rain forest left in its territory.

Pterosaurs in Australia and New Zealand

“I glanced to the south and [saw] . . . something flying that appeared to be at the height of light planes that fly around here as Moorabbin Airport is not far away. This thing was at least as large as a light plane, say a Cesna.  It was about 5 klms [kilometers] away and was lazily flapping it’s wings . . . It appeared to be lit up by the moonlight and shining as if it had no feathers. . . . I could see it quite clearly . . .”

Pterosaur Sightings in Australia

“I live in Australia in the state of Victoria near the Dandenong Ranges about 25 klms east of Melbourne . . . I cannot be sure of the year of the sighting . . . but I think it would have been around the late 1990′s.

“. . . about nine o’clock one night . . . full moon and very bright with a cloud bank to the southeast extending to and over the Ranges. Mt. Dandenong is about 2000 feet high and the clouds were much higher than this.

“I glanced to the south and [saw] . . . something flying that appeared to be at the height of light planes that fly around here as Moorabbin Airport is not far away. This thing was at least as large as a light plane, say a Cesna.  It was about 5 klms away and was lazily flapping it’s wings . . . It appeared to be lit up by the moonlight and shining as if it had no feathers. . . . I could see it quite clearly. . . . for about 5 mins whence it disappeared into the cloud bank. I estimate it was flying at a height higher than Mt Dandenong.”

Modern Pterosaur in Australia

“In the early 1990s . . . [I] drove from Perth out to Western Australia . . .  [to] see the outback . . . set up the tent . . . and wanted to see the sun go down . . . [something] looked like an airplane, far away. . . . maybe a couple hundred feet [high]. . . . it got nearer to me, I noticed that the wings were actually flapping gently. . . . color was a dark tan. . . . no sound. It was getting closer . . . had a wingspan [of about] 15 or 20 feet. It got close . . . leathery . . . no feathers at all.”

Giant Pterosaurs in Australia

East Coast of Australia

During his farm chores, between 9:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m., he [a boy of about twelve years old] . . . saw a large creature with wings. It was on the roof of the shed, just above the door where he had recently been standing.

Although terrified, the boy had a brief view of the body and wings of the creature. It was larger than an average man six feet tall, with wings that folded to the side and back, reminiscent of bat wings.

New Zealand Flying Slasher Pterosaur

Across New Zealand, North Islands farmland and countryside, there have been for almost a century tales from farmers and hunters, of a horrid winged beast, with long sharp fangs lining its narrow, beak-like jaws. Its eyes gleam in the night, where it can be seen flying overhead, shillouted in the moon. Farmers despise it because it tears chunks from their cattle in the nightime. It is called “The Flying Slasher.”

Consider Papua New Guinea. For Umboi Island, eyewitnesses have included an Australian who served in a government position there, a native government leader, many common villagers, and a visiting cryptozoogist. For other areas of P.N.G., they have included an Australian psychologist, American expedition members of a television true-life adventure series, an American World War II soldier, a British entomoligist (biologist), missionaries, a non-missionary visiting a mission, many common villagers, a minister, and a visiting cryptozoologist.

Consider other areas of the Southwest Pacific. Eyewitnesses have included an Australian scientist and his wife, an Australian farm boy, a real estate agent, school-aged children, a pilot and co-pilot of a small plane, sailors on an American military ship, and common villagers.

Consider the United States. Eyewitnesses have included an attorney, a business owner, a hospital lab employee, an artist working for a silkscreening company, farmers, a fireman, teenagers, school-aged children, elementary school teachers, an ambulance driver, a minister, a plane pilot, and several cryptozoologists.

The eyewitnesses are as varied as we would expect of persons who each just happened to be in the right place at the right time, to witness a living creature rare enough and usually-reclusive enough to remain undiscovered by Western science.

More Resources:

Australian eyewitness: the psychologist Brian Hennessy

Analysis of two interviews of Gideon Koro on Umboi Island: How many ropens?

“I live in Australia in the state of Victoria near the Dandenong Ranges about 25 [kilometers] east of Melbourne. . . . around the late 1990′s . . . I saw was what I first thought was a pelican flying about 3000 feet high but realised pelicans at that height did not look as large as this . . . [it was about 9 p.m.] It was full moon . . . It was something flying that appeared to be at the height of light planes that fly around here . . . This thing was at least as large as . . . say a Cesna. . . . lazily flapping it’s wings . . . It appeared to be lit up by the moonlight and shining as if it had no feathers. Very strange . . . I had it under observation for about 5 mins . . .”

In Australia, this man is not alone, witnessing what our Western culture implies is impossible. I have communicated with several other Australians, over the past six years, and they have seen similar giant flying creatures. But the others have had much closer encounters.